Rabbi Esther Hugenholtz

This High Holiday cycle, I chose the theme ' V'heyeh B'rachah - Be a Blessing ' based on the blessing God gave Abraham in Genesis chapter 12. The theme ' V'heyeh B'rachah - Be a Blessing ' was incorporated musically throughout the High Holidays by Linda Wertz and myself. Linda Wertz and I 'retro-engineered' the melody of 'El Na Refa Na La' composed by Daphna Rosenberg and Nave Agmon from Israeli worship band ' Nava Tehila' , and fit (some) of the words of Gen. 12 to the tune. You can listen/watch the video of us playing/singing the song here . My sermon series focused on the first three versus of Genesis chapter 12 where Abraham (then still Abram) is charged with his mission: וַיֹּאמֶר יְהוָה אֶל-אַבְרָם, לֶךְ-לְךָ מֵאַרְצְךָ וּמִמּוֹלַדְתְּךָ וּמִבֵּית אָבִיךָ, אֶל-הָאָרֶץ, אֲשֶׁר אַרְאֶךָּ. וְאֶעֶשְׂךָ, לְגוֹי גָּדוֹל, וַאֲבָרֶכְךָ, וַאֲגַדְּלָה שְׁמֶךָ; וֶהְיֵה, בְּרָכָה. וַאֲבָרְכָה, מְבָרְכֶיךָ, וּמְקַלֶּלְךָ...

Sermonette Ne’ilah Rabbi Esther Hugenholtz ‘Veheyeh B’rachah’ – Be A Blessing.  A blessing is a curious thing. To be a blessing even more so. A blessing is not a gratuitous gift. A blessing is not an indulgence, a luxury of the soul. A blessing, rather, is that great synthesis between joy and covenant. We cannot be a blessing: to ourselves, to our households, our communities, the Land of Israel and to the world entire, if we do not find our sense of  purpose .  No other argument in Judaism – of fear and loyalty, of continuity and cohesion – will be compelling in today’s world, where choice is a fractal upon fractal of more choice, where we have a thousand doors to open and a thousand reasons to walk away.  This is why ‘ veheyeh b’rachah ’ and ‘ lech lecha’ are intimately connected.  The fulcrum is the land we are to be shown and the blessing to the families of the Earth that we are called to be. How we can ask the question of how we can give...

Yom Kippur Morning Sermon Rabbi Esther Hugenholtz To A Land That I Will Show You Imagine a cat in a box. How do we know whether the cat is alive or dead? This paradox is part of a thought experiment that physicists dub ‘ Schroedinger’s Cat ’ and it is used to explain the basic principle of quantum mechanics, the idea that a something can be both a particle or a wave and that, bizarrely, our perception can affect reality.  Perhaps our Jewish future is like  Schroedinger’s Cat : whether we live or die, thrive or decline, is a matter of perception. Abraham had to journey into the great Unknown: ‘ el ha’aretz asher ar’echa ’ – ‘to a land that I will show you’.  He was called to draw on all his inner resources and vision in order to heed that vision.  The commentators analyzing that crucial verse – ‘ to a land that I will show you ’ wrestle with that quantum state also. What are the implications of being sent on one’s  shlichut but without...

Yom Kippur Kol Nidre Sermon 2018 Rabbi Esther Hugenholtz Our Father’s House ‘ Vayomer Adonai el Avram lech lecha m’artz’cha umimolad’t’cha umibeit avicha el ha’aretz asher ar’echa… veheyeh b’racha ’. ‘And the Eternal said to Avram, go from yourself, from your homeland, the place of your birth, and your father’s house to a land that I will show you… and you shall be a blessing.’ This High Holiday cycle, we are exploring this verse as we try to understand and answer the charge of ‘ veheyeh b’rachah ’, of how we can be a blessing. Our previous sermonic journeys have forayed into the territory of the soul. ‘ Lech lecha ’ - we have ventured into ourselves, and reached for our deepest purpose because, as I said during my sermon for Shabbat Shuvah:  we cannot live Jewish lives by instinct alone: we are called to make Judaism our own and ascribe to it a higher mission . When we discover how we want to shape our lives and take ownership of our Judaism, we can act with g...

Yom Kippur Sermon 2016 Rabbi Esther Hugenholtz Taking Emotional Risks Let’s start off tonight with our first confession. The High Holy Days can feel make us feel a little word weary, between all the Avinu Malkeinu’s, the Al Chet’s and the Ashamnu’s. Repetition can be instructive, even cathartic but it can be dulling as well. Frankly, some of us may already feel a little bored or tuned out this ‘early in the game’ and are bracing ourselves for the next 24 hours. Just like we delved into our ‘Deep Stories’ during Rosh haShanah to uncover what drives us and what can make us more empathic towards the experiences of others, we have the opportunity to embrace the ideas behind the words of our liturgy. If there’s one key idea – of many - that we can distill from the High Holy Days is the call to take emotional risks. The confessions, the repentance, the high drama of prayer, the intensity of the God-language, the liturgical repetition, the self-examination, the promises...

Yom Kippur Sermon 2015 Rabbi Esther Hugenholtz The Religion Business “So what do you do for a living?” We’ve all been there: waiting at the bus stop, train station, airport, in the checkout line of the supermarket or the doctor’s surgery and a well-meaning stranger strikes up a pleasant conversation with you and then they ask that question. I’ve come to dread answering it. People’s reactions can range from the stereotypical to the inane: ‘are there women rabbis?’ (clearly you’re looking at one!), ‘you don’t look like a rabbi?’ and my all-time favourite (not): ‘where’s your beard! Ha ha ha’. So I resort to an arsenal of conversational tricks varying from deflection (‘tell me, what do you do for a living?’) to outright deception—yes, on rare occasions, I’ve lied! Still, I love what I do and there’s no denying that I’m in the Religion Business. Rabbi Morris and I aren’t the only ones in the Religion Business here at Sinai. Everyone here is involved in the Relig...